Murnaghan Fellow at Fourth Circuit

Murnaghan Fellow Dena Robinson delivered oral argument last week in a Title VII case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.  Dena represents Robel Bing, an African-American worker who, after passing his employer’s pre-employment background check, was fired on his first day on the job as a customer service representative.  Mr. Bing alleges that his new supervisor, after learning that Mr. Bing is African-American, performed an additional, ad hoc “background check,” and then used the result—a nearly decade-old reference in the Baltimore Sun to Mr. Bing’s role as a witness to an incident of Halloween “celebratory gunfire”—as a pretext to terminate his employment.

Dena’s predecessor as Murnaghan Fellow, Ejaz Baluch, briefed the case.